5 Tips to Make Meal Planning EASY (that you can actually stick to! ๐)
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Meal planning really comes down to creating a method you’ll stick to + meals you’ll actually eat! Here are my 5 tips to meal plan …
Great tips! I'd love to see what you plan for a month or couple of weeks. ๐
You're enlightening and funny. Do you happen to have a garden? New here, so I saw your farm videos, hit didn't know if that included veggies and the like.
I looked at that freezer meals video, but no recipes. How can I get them?
Love the categories tip. Definitely do it regularly! We don't have a big freezer, so I am regularly double-batching meals to reheat for those crazy nights too.
Would love to see you do a relaxed meal-prep Saturday night video, cup of coffee in hand!
Why is your hair long? Iโm confused!
Lmao Brinner… I thought it was a restaurant, lol I looked it up there is a restaurant named that. Lol
I've been meal planning for years and it's not as complicated as most 'influencers' make it out to be…you don't need fancy printables (and you certainly don't need to pay for any of that nonsense).
Great tips! Thanks! You are so right – youโre not saving if your family wonโt eat what you prepare! Love your plan!
โWhen you buy bags of salad for the person you wanna beโ. ๐๐๐
I always think you do you when meal planning. I have defos wasted far to much money trying to copy what friends and family do recently monthly shopping. Doesn't work. We are a plan weekly type of family as every night seems to be busy especially when hubby is deployed. Keeps is nice and simple and less money down the drain. โค๏ธ
I do a month plan. Shop every two weeks. I save each month then we can just rotate the plans.
You mentioned linking a freezer meal video. I don't see the link in the info.
An absolute game changer for me was what I learned from Diana Rene (The Decluttered Mom). I don't want to share all her tips here because she has a whole program dedicated to meal planning – but I will say that her method makes so much sense! You take a couple hours to plan out an entire year's worth of meals (it's easier than it sounds because you basically just plan out 4 weeks and use that same menu for one quarter of the year, then rotate to the next quarter, etc.) and make a shopping list with all the ingredients you will need each week. Then you just open up the chart, pick a week, and buy all the ingredients listed beside that week and you're done. I seriously never have to meal plan anymore because I did it once and now it's done forever! If I look at a particular week and think "I'm not really feeling that right now" I'll go to another week or even go into another quarter (who says you can't eat grilled chicken in the middle of winter!?) and go from there. I love all your tips, Angela, and they are actually right along the same lines as Diana Rene's! Thanks as always for your fun and helpful content!! ๐
I meal plan for dinner but Iโm horrible listing that out for breakfast and lunch. Are home ALL the time and we homeschool so I need to get better about that. Thanks for the video and printable.
Okay but can we talk about how to get everybody to eat what you make ? I am so fed up with dinner time because of this and I can't do the whole 'go to bed without dinner' thing….
I do grocery shopping for two weeks and meal prep for 1 week for 3 who have very long working hours it is just what works best for us
That moment when you begin cooking and you realize someone ate one or, as it happened numerous times, more than one …aaaaaaaaa!
And yes, usualy is one food I was craving for….aaaaaaa!
Grill night
Italian night
Mexican night
Asian night (stir fry, potstickers etc)
Air fryer meal
Soul food night (fried chicken, meatloaf etc
1 eat out night
Lunches we prep once a week and freeze everything
Thatโs my plan ๐ค makes it easy
You might like to watch Adeline's Kitchen. Great freezer meals. She has young kids.
I love that you are clear that you have to do what works for you and your family. I actually loved your last tip. I have a kiddo on the Autism Spectrum so if I was focused on getting good deals I would likely be getting things he would never be willing to eat. If I happen to notice that something at our grocery store is on sale that he likes, I'll maybe change up one meal on the original plan but it's far more important to me that he eats than saving a dollar or two on something he won't eat.
We do "Linner" a lot lol .. Its just eating dinner around 2-4pm and then snacking the rest of the night.
Great tips!!! Thanks so much๐
A cooking channel from Christopher, where he cooks for his family, would be so cool!!๐ฅฐ
Great ideas!
Thanks so much for sharing!! And the โbacked up, gassyโ we can totally relate to! ๐๐ We just returned from our summer vacation and our bodies are now detoxing from all of that eating out. ๐ฅด Our insides were not happy with us.
Totally agree with these tips! I look at my busy calendar and plan those crock pot meals when I know the day will be crazy. The 80% thing is what I do too. Stick with what everyone likes. Great tips!
Years ago we used to shop once per week with no meal planning, but we mostly bought the same things except for one special treat per person, plus sometimes using coupons for our staples. Now I have meal plans and do grocery shopping once per month with replenishing fruits and veggies at mid month, also getting specialty things for special occasions. We hardly try new things, as to not waste food. Savings are automatic with store cards.
Nice tips Angela.๐๐ฝ๐
Great suggestions. But can we talk about your hair?! Gorgeous.
In Croatia most important meal is lunch. That one has to be freshly cooked and worm. Dinner is usually leftover lunch or breakfast food.
as a mom to many kids, my biggest tip aside from having a plan is to prep your meal early in the day. right away in the morning I'll make sure to defrost meat (night before is even better) chop all veggies/fruits. get my dinner ingredients out and ready. if making rice I have the ingredients measure out in rice cooker and ready to make later. Or I"ll fill the crockpot or instant pot early. this has saved me so many times as I'm too tired later in the day. having it prepped or already in the crockpot helps so much
We are a family of 12 and a meal plan is definitely a must and it saves us so much money. I laugh so much at your comments about stopping at fastfood or a sit down restaurant. It's crazy we would blow through our whole food budget in two eating out trips. These tips are gold!
I love your hair like this!! How do you get loose curls so easily ๐ฅบ
I absolutely LoVe this! Thanks for the tips and like you, I like to quick categorize for the week (example: I like to mix up my meat choices, so that Iโm not eating say chicken all week; Ill write chicken on Sunday, pork on Monday, usually taco tuesdays, fish on Wednesday, beef on Thursday, pizza fridays and maybe leftovers Saturday, but key words for that day really helps me to prepare when Iโm shopping) and I have a neat chalkboard days of the week hanging on my wall, but itโs been โdryโ for awhile haha, but thanks to you, Iโm about to change that ๐ A really neat Facebook page to join is my shared recipes. You can type in a keyword like โbeefโ and a whole bunch of beef recipes pop up. Very convenient!
You are spot on โฆ. The meal plan is what counts , if they eat it itโs a win ! Youโre videos bring me joy because they are so realistic !
Thank you for your advice! Love your new hair , too cute ๐
๐ Wow youโre hair looks amazing!! And I loved all the tips, so helpful thank you!
I feel like your hair grew overnight!! Lol โฆ love the ideasโฆ im one of those people that starts strong and around summer im lost lol
Having a well organised fridge has made all the difference!
My kids are now adults so I don't really need mealplanning but I enjoyed it anyway ( esp. tip no 5) and I'm addicted to your videos๐โฅ๏ธ
me watching this while eating my last piece of bread with cream cheese for dinner…
I've incorporated what I call themed days for a while now, and it's worked very well. For example, one day a week is soup day. There's various soups that I know how to make and occasionally I'll try a new recipe. It helps so much to just plug in which soup I'll be making. Saves time and energy on decision making.
Wait Iโm confusedโฆ have you gotten hair extensions? I love this long hair look, but I love your look always
Have a leftover night. Take everything left over from the week, heat it up and viola dinner is done!!!
A video on snacks and lunches being home all the time would be beneficial
If only I knew what my kids actually liked to eat ๐คฃ
your hair is so long!
Great tips!
Hi! FYI the Instagram link on your main channel page doesn't work. There is a typo in "thisgather**E**dnest"
I meal plan for a week to two weeks at a time but I LOVE the idea of categories!!! That is such a great idea โค๏ธ Thank you!
It's just me and my husband right now, but we make a large batch of something each week to serve as our lunches. We portion it out and have stacks in the fridge ready to go for the work week. This helps us so much because then we only have to cook dinners a few nights a week vs every night if you take leftovers for lunch the next day.